MLB.com's Carrie Muskat has been covering Major League Baseball since 1981 and is the author of "Banks to Sandberg to Grace: Five Decades of Love and Frustration with the Cubs." You can follow her on Twitter @CarrieMuskat. Here, she blogs about the Cubs.

10/30 Barney looks golden

If you believe Brandon Phillips, Darwin Barney appears to have won the Gold Glove. Phillips, who won the top defensive award three of the last four seasons, tweeted today: “My 2012 Season/Postseason was GOOD … but NOT GOOD enough: No #AllStar + No #GoldGlove + No #SilverSlugger + No #WSRing = #MOTIVATION.”

Barney, Phillips and the Diamondbacks’ Aaron Hill were finalists for the Gold Glove award, to be announced tonight on ESPN2. Barney had the best fielding percentage among the three at .997, commiting two errors. He also set a NL record for consecutive error-less games, and tied a Major League mark.

agreed… wouldn’t mind getting a young SP for Barney and moving on… like his play but the people on here crushing on him has just made me not want him. If we were a WS contender Barney would be less liekly to be starting on this team…….

I believe once the Cubs replace the ENTIRE outfield and thirdbaseman with LEGIT run producers a GOLD GLOVE, middle weight hitting SECOND BASEMAN will be a REASON why the Cubs become a WS contender. He should not be depended upon for being a great hitter/run producer such was Sandberg who was a rare commodity at second base. I doubt Barney may be around for that but he should be. The offensive impotency of CF, RF and 3B should be addressed WAY before an offensive improvement from a MIDDLE INFIELDER.

agree… but when you “could” get a great return such as a young SP for a package with Barney included you do it! Especially with how sort we are on SP…. Yes CF, RF, and 3B are problems BUT a fix for those OF positions can be had in FA which only costs us money…. 3B is a toughy bc Baez looks superb in his early stages of MiLB so honestly a 2 or 3 year short term fix is needed…. is it Valbeuno? I hope not… is it Vitters? I doubt it, he didn’t show much in Aug and Sept BUT he has struggled like that everytime he progressed so does FO give him another shot? It could happen…..

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